Saturday, April 29, 2006

Well you may remember I mentioned my oldest son and his college search. He is a high school senior so we have been doing the college application process for over a year now. May 1 is the deadline to accept a college offer, and we have been agonizing over it. He has gone on so manycollege visits I am afraid his grades have suffered! We have been calling the financial aid offices, trying to negotiate for the best package, and my whole family has been giving advice and praying for his decision. He had narrowed it down to two of the four that accepted him, all really good schools. Well, he has made up his mind. It's not my first pick, but it's his life so I am leaving it up to him. He has to pay back the loans so it has to be something he is totally invested in and believes is best for his future.

It's a very good school.

But it is so far away from us! I am trying to be excited for him, but I don't have my heart in it. Yet. I am trying to think about all the great opportunities he will have there. I am very proud of him and I know he will do well. I know there are so many exciting opportunities out there for him! But we will miss him so much! He won't be able to come home very often, we just can't afford the plane fare. I can't believe my baby is going to college!

I thought when I got to the point of making this announcement I would be more happy and excited. Truth is I don't feel it that way now.

7 comments:

Your sons are so handsome! I can't imagine sending mine to college in 14-16 years's time...

I wish him the best in the years ahead.

Oh, and if this is any consolation to you, my parents live in Brazil (though the have been spending several months a year here with us since 2002) and recently my brother, who lived just an hour from them there, decided to go work in China. My mom is still devastated about it.

I was thirty miles away from home when I went to college and to a home-sick kid like me, it might as well have been a million.

For the first year and a half I came home every week-end. Not until I started staying on campus did I realize what I was missing. That's when you build friendships and have so much fun. You meet other people who don't go home and establish relationships. This is a very important thing, which I wish I'd bit the bullet and done from the git-go. It was too easy for me to go home.

Your son won't have that problem. He'll stay. You and he will miss each other, but he will establish other relationships and become more self-reliant. I think college is as much about that as it is about the education.

(Tulane is one of the most beautiful schools I've ever seen. I hope it comes back to full bloom.)

Tulane is an excellent school. New Orleans is an amazing city. My aunt is a teacher at one of the community colleges in N.O. and has some amazing stories post-Katrina. I'm sure your son will get a multifaceted education.

Words of "widsdom".....well you are not losing him to a closed adoption so count your blessings, he will be a letter away, a phone call away, an e-mail away, he won't be calling someone else mum, he will still be your son and he will be doing something that shows what a great job you did raising him.Save up for visits, beg, borrow or steal for visits. This is your chance to find out about the joys of sending parcellettes.Gorgeous photo, all three boys are just adorable.Oh and give yourself permission to feel sad too, it's a big step your baby bird leaving the nest isn't it.Still reading and loving your blog. All the best - Kim